After her dad needed to have major surgery, 10-year-old Natalie Higginbotham took over handling his dog “Max,” a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in AKC Scent Work. The two are now an active AKC Scent Work team excelling at high levels of the sport. In the last year, Higginbotham and Max have earned their Overall Novice Elite, Overall Advanced Elite, Overall Excellent Elite, and their Overall Master title in AKC Scent Work.
An Unplanned AKC Scent Work Handler
Following in the footsteps of her father and grandmother, Higginbotham is a third-generation AKC Scent Work Handler. Although she grew up around the sport, she didn’t intend to get involved herself until her father needed surgery in 2023. At the time, he was competing with Max at the Novice level, but when he had an open-heart surgery procedure to do a valve repair on a birth defect, he was unable to train or compete.
When Higginbotham first started competing, she just meant to help her dad and planned on handing the leash back to him as soon as he recovered. “I was very nervous at my first trial and I didn’t really know how it would end up,” Higginbotham recalls.
But, after that first trial she quickly fell in love with the sport. “I could really do this with him,” she realized. “I was not expecting it to end up the way that it did, and I was not expecting it to go the way it has now.”

In the months since, Higginbotham and Max have quickly advanced in the sport. Now, she enjoys going to dog shows with multiple generations of her family and doing something she knows Max loves. “At the end of the day just know if they like it, you should keep doing it because it’s for the dog’s enjoyment,” she says. And there’s no question that Max loves the sport. “Whenever we are in the car to go to Scent Work, he’s wagging his tail, and yipping with excitement,” she adds.
When she’s not training in AKC Scent Work, Higginbotham likes to read, write, and draw. “Most of all, I just like to play with Max,” she adds. When he’s not training and competing in AKC Scent Work, she says Max is very energetic and fun to play with. “He likes to be the center of everything,” she says.
Building Training Routines
Trialing at the highest levels of AKC Scent Work takes dedication and commitment. Higginbotham and Max go to AKC Scent Work classes every week, unless they have a big trial. In class, they get to not only practice searches, but Higginbotham also learns how to better understand her dog while he’s working. In addition to training classes, the pair trains at home but is careful not to overdo it. “We try not to overwork him, so maybe a half an hour once a week,” she explains.

Higginbotham’s favorite part of AKC Scent Work is just having fun with her dog, though she particularly enjoys “the challenge” of the sport for both the dog and the handler.
One big challenge of that the pair has had to work through is thinking about timing while competing. She also had to learn to read her dog to know when he’s “telling when he’s done with a search.” She says this is especially challenging because there is a time limit for the search. At a recent trial, Higginbotham recalls that they were in a small search area, and she hadn’t brought a stopwatch, so she had Max continue searching not realizing that they were running out of time. “In interiors as you go into a small bathroom and other places where you only have a minute or a minute thirty to find everything, you have to make sure he’s found all the hides and to say ‘finish’ before the time runs out,” she explains.
Finding Her Place in AKC Scent Work
Higginbotham emphasizes that becoming an avid AKC Scent Work competitor has helped her to build her confidence, especially as she takes on a leadership role with people of all ages. In addition to competing with Max, Higginbotham regularly volunteers at trials as a gatekeeper. In this role, she has to keep (mostly adult) handlers and dogs organized and lined up properly, so the trial can run smoothly.
Higginbotham also enjoys the friendships she’s created at AKC Scent Work trials, especially because her peers at school don’t always understand what she does on weekends at dog shows. “At a trial I feel like it’s normal, and then I try to tell my friends at school about it, and they don’t get it, so I have to spend twenty minutes explaining what the game is and what the rules are, and they still don’t understand,” Higginbotham jokes. Even though AKC Scent Work might be a less common sport for Junior Handlers to be involved in, she’s fallen in love with the sport and loves spending time with Max.

For kids and teens who are curious about participating in AKC Scent Work, Higginbotham advises them to not let anxiety keep them from giving the sport a try. “You won’t ever feel ready, but after you’ve done your first trial it will feel like you’re doing this now, and slowly you’ll feel a lot more comfortable and want to do it more,” she says.
Higginbotham believes those feelings of doubt don’t ever fully go away, even for advanced handlers. When thinking back on when she recently competed in Advanced with Max, she admits that she felt a bit nervous. “We had all this time to prepare for it, but then the weekend of the trial came, and I’m like ‘I’m not ready.’ But after I did my first round, it wasn’t that bad,” she recalls. But after that, she felt much more confident in her handling and the training she and Max had done.
Moving on to Detective
In addition to AKC Scent Work, Max has shown an interest in Fast CAT. “The first time he wasn’t sure about what this game is all about, the second trial he did better,” says Higginbotham, who adds that they might continue exploring the sport in the future.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2025, Higginbotham and Max have recently finished their Master level AKC Scent Work title, and she is looking forward to the Spring when they’ll start working on the Detective level of AKC Scent Work, as well as Master Elite Titles. “I know Detective is really, really hard, but that’s the next step,” Higginbotham says.
While Higginbotham’s dad has since completely recovered from his surgery, there is no question that Higginbotham will continue to compete with Max. He was adamant that she’s a much better handler than he is, and that if he was the one handling Max they would still be in Novice. He credits the pair’s success to his daughter’s natural ability to train and handle Max.